SAP's BusinessObjects Edge's system requirements vary depending on the size of the service's network deployment. Edge has increasingly demanding system hardware requirements as you add more simultaneously connected clients. However, Edge has defined system requirements for the service's client-side users and established minimum server hardware requirements for the smallest possible service deployments.

About SAP and BusinessObjects Edge

Edge developer SAP is an enterprise application software developer that designs products businesses of all sizes. The Edge software is a business intelligence solution for mid-sized companies that provides data management and integration tools to help businesses establish faster and higher return on investment rates. The program's data analysis, management dashboards and visualization tools can help a business better manage and share things like inventory, sales and client information. Edge also includes tools to share documents and visualize multi-dimensional data.

BusinessObjects Edge Server Requirements

SAP's BusinessObjects Edge software uses a centralized server to manage and store all data shared between clients. The server software is designed to work on computers running Windows Server, Linux Suse and Red Hat Linux operating systems. BusinessObjects Edge BI 4.0 requires at least Windows Server 2003 and a 64-bit CPU. Edge benefits from the larger RAM support from 64-bit CPUs and is compatible with both Intel and AMD CPUs. At minimum, BusinessObject Edge requires four CPU cores operating at 2GHz or faster -- the cores can be within a single CPU or multiple CPUs. SAP requires at least 8GB of RAM to run BusinessObjects Edge, but recommends using at least 16GB. The BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform, which includes Edge, has an 11GB hard drive footprint for the English-only installation (adding all languages adds 3GB of data).

BusinessObjects Edge Client Requirements

The client-side system requirements are also important because the all the data-management capabilities won't do a business any good unless employees have access. The client-side systems have much lower requirements, as the server offloads much of the heavy lifting. The client-side system needs a single-core 2.0GHz or faster CPU and at least 2GB of system RAM. The client-side software has an installation footprint of 3.5GB with only English language support and adds an additional 4GB of installation space with all language support activated.

Scalability and Client Requirements

BusinessObjects includes tools to determine a server's SAP Application Performance Standard or SAPS rating that can be used to determine the maximum number of simultaneous client-connections the server can handle. Larger-deployment servers may require multiple multicore CPUs and enough RAM to put even high-end workstations to shame for smooth operation. Edge's RAM requirements increase with the number of CPU cores for some applications like "Crystal Reports for Enterprise;" the server should have at least 1.5GB of RAM per core to use the service. In the case of Crystal Reports, a server with 16 cores should be paired with at least 24GB of RAM.

About the Author

Dan Stone started writing professionally in 2006, specializing in education, technology and music. He is a web developer for a communications company and previously worked in television. Stone received a Bachelor of Arts in journalism and a Master of Arts in communication studies from Northern Illinois University.